


Day 6: Decorating a Christmas Tree ft. Derpdoc

by Pippiuscattius



Series: Pippi's Holiday Shipping Challenge [6]
Category: Doctor Who, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: 25 Day Holiday OTP Challenge, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Lights, Christmas Tree, F/M, First Kiss, Fourth Doctor's Scarf, Hugs, When I say Ditzy Doo and Derpy I mean the same character, just to be clear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 16:53:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pippiuscattius/pseuds/Pippiuscattius
Summary: Derpy has brought home a magnificent tree for her and the Doctor to decorate for Hearth's Warming, but not all of her decorating plans go as she intends. Thankfully, she and the Doctor make an excellent improvising team, and along the way, they may learn a thing or two from some flameless fireworks.(Part of my 25 Day Holiday OTP challenge. Will feature multiple ships from multiple fandoms. These will all be quickly-written, silly drabbles so please don't judge them too harshly. UwU)





	Day 6: Decorating a Christmas Tree ft. Derpdoc

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've watched My Little Pony, but even longer since I watched Doctor Who. *insert usual apologies for any OOC-ness here*
> 
> Also, I wrote these characters mostly as they were in the 100th episode because I'm more familiar their canon portrayals than their fanon portrayals.

The plump cedar tree fit perfectly as the centerpiece of the Doctor’s lab. It was a splash of nature in the middle of cold, technological science, a fragment of the natural outside world that had been leaked in by the hooves of a clumsy gray pegasus pony. 

“Doctor!” Derpy called excitedly the second the stallion entered the lab. “I gotta show you something! I got us a tree!”

Quickly shaking his head to make sure he’d heard her correctly, the Doctor checked, “A tree?” At Derpy’s bouncy nod, he removed his scarf and placed it upon a hook beside the door, slowly walking further into the lab. There was a trail of pine needles coating the ground for him to follow.

Sure enough, there it was, standing grandiosely in the middle of his workbenches and projects. He strolled around its trunk in circles, examining its sharp, glossy needles. “Looks to be an Eastern Red Cedar…Juniperus Virginiana….mm-hmm…lovely sheen…healthy branches…”

Derpy watched expectantly from the entryway of the lab. She really wanted the Doctor to enjoy the tree, especially after all the effort it had taken her to get it.

“It’s brilliant!” the Doctor abruptly exclaimed. “But, uh, if I may ask…why exactly have you brought a tree into my lab?”

Tilting her head and frowning, Derpy asked incredulously, “Don’t you know? It’s getting close to Hearth’s Warming!”

Squinting as he mentally repeated that name, _Hearth’s Warming, Hearth’s Warming,_ and tried to assign it meaning, the Doctor lit up with spontaneous recognition. “Hearth’s Warming, yes! The holiday celebrating the unification of Equestria between earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. That’s nearly here?”

Snorting out a giggle, Derpy chuckled, “Yeah, Doc! It’s almost winter!”

Turning back to the tree and watching it thoughtfully, a more troubling nugget of memory resurfaced in the Doctor’s ponderings. “Hearth’s Warming…the pony equivalent of Christmas…” he muttered.

“Huh? What’s that?” Derpy trotted closer, falling back on her hind legs as the Doctor spun around the face her.

“There wouldn’t happen to be any sort of…dangerous force arising anywhere in Equestria, would there?” he fretted.

Derpy slowly shook her head. “Not that I’ve heard of. If there was anything dangerous going on, I’d be off messenger duty!”

“You’re sure?” the Doctor pressed. “Nothing even vaguely concerning?”

“Nope!” Derpy squeaked. “Things are usually pretty quiet around Hearth’s Warming.”

The concealed worry creasing the Doctor’s brow disappeared all at once. “Oh, good…no holiday crisis to worry about this year, then…” he added to himself.

Not sure what to make of the Doctor’s mutterings, Derpy just backed off and let him admire the tree. “It took a lot of hard work to get the tree in here,” she commented proudly.

“How’d you do it?” the Doctor questioned, playing with one of the springy branches to test its strength.

“I had to carry it here all the way from the Ponyville tree yard,” Derpy explained, flexing her sore wings. “That was a doozy…I couldn’t get all the branches through the door at first, but I made it work! I was really careful about it, I promise!”

“Splendid!” he declared. “Now…I’m assuming that part of having a Hearth’s Warming tree is decorating it?”

“Yup!” Derpy trotted over to one of the workbenches, shoving some boxes out from underneath. “I brought some ornaments and lights from my house to use!” Tearing open the top of one of the boxes with her teeth, she sheepishly peeked inside. “Hah, some of them might have gotten a bit…broken on the flight over, but the rest should be okay!”

Plenty adjusted to Derpy’s clumsy nature, the Doctor just strode over and joined her beside the boxes. “That’s alright, I’m sure there are still plenty…” He peered into the box, features falling when he saw only three intact ornaments among a mess of shattered glass and fragments.

Shrugging and donning a nervous grin, Derpy quietly muttered, “Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” the Doctor pulled himself back into a positive attitude. “I’m sure there’s something around here we can use instead of ornaments…” He scanned the perimeter of the lab. “Erm…you look for ornament replacements and I’ll put up the ones that are left.”

Nodding attentively, Derpy trotted between tables and shelves in the lab, scouring them for any items that could hang on the tree. The Doctor set to carefully arranging the few intact, circular ornaments on the cedar’s branches. It was sparse decoration, but it was a start.

By the time he’d returned to the boxes of tree decorations, Derpy was waiting for him with a basket of flower-like, colorful orbs in her teeth, grinning widely.  
“Ah, what have you found?” the Doctor took one look at the ruffled items and his eyes went wide. “Are those…my flameless fireworks?”

“Sure are!” Derpy said, nearly dropping the basket when she opened her mouth to speak.

“They would make magnificent ornamentations…” The Doctor considered. “But on the other hand, they are fireworks triggered by love…”

“It’ll be okay, Doc! We’ll just make sure that no ponies who are in love get close to the tree! This is Hearth’s Warming, not Hearts and Hooves Day.”

Without waiting around to hear any more of the Doctor’s objections, Derpy spread her wings and flew towards the tree, taking one flameless firework at a time and nestling it among the branches. Placing his trust in Derpy for the time being, the Doctor moved on to a box with a string of red, blue, and yellow lights inside.

“How wonderfully primarily-colored,” he commented, dragging the lights towards the tree and wrapping them around the base in a spiraling pattern.

Once Derpy had placed the final flameless firework securely among the grasping needles, she volunteered to assist the Doctor by wrapping the rest of the lights around the parts he couldn’t reach. She also was in charge of putting the star atop the tree once the Doctor had retrieved it from the final box. Other than hitting her head on the ceiling from ascending too quickly to the treetop, she was able to balance the glittery yellow shape smoothly.

The tree was far more magnificent once decorated. The Doctor plugged the lights into one of the numerous outlets stationed along his lab’s walls and sat down beside Derpy to admire the lightshow. The faint, multicolored glow of the flameless fireworks intermingled with the pulsating colors of the lights that surrounded them, casting a rainbow around the laboratory.

Derpy “ooh-ed” as she stared entranced by the tree. “It’s even prettier than I thought it would be!”

Brushing off his hooves, the Doctor proudly proclaimed, “Yes, we really outdid ourselves, didn’t we?”

“Oh wait!” Derpy remembered. “I forgot about the most important part! The garland! It’s my favorite part of the whole tree!”

The pegasus ran back to the boxes, stuffing her head in each of them. After they’d all been searched, she popped back up in alarm. “I can’t find it!” she cried, distraught. “I must have forgotten to pack it!”

“That’s alright,” the Doctor assured. “We can find another replacement decoration! Like…” he looked around the room again, though there was nothing even remotely similar to a garland in sight. “Like…um…”

“Like your scarf!” Derpy piped up, hurrying back to the door and swiping the long, striped garment off its hook.

“I’m…not sure if that’s…” the Doctor began to protest, but Derpy had already flown up and draped his scarf around the middle of the tree.

“ _Now_ it’s perfect,” Derpy decided, drifting back to the ground and contentedly retaking her seat beside the Doctor.

The Doctor had to admit, his scarf’s colorful stripes did match the rest of the rainbow display quite nicely. “That ought to be the finishing touch,” he sighed out. “But what am I going to wear when I go out now? It’s much too frigid to go into town without a scarf of some sort.”

Grinning widely, Derpy shuffled over until she pressed against the Doctor’s side, wrapping her right wing around his back. “Maybe I can help!” she suggested. “I’ve been told that my wings make great blankets!”

The gesture made the Doctor blush, but he kept himself calm. “That could work, yes…” He found his head leaning over to gently rest on top of Derpy’s all on its own. As soon as he recognized what he’d done, his two hearts began thumping noticeably louder in his chest.

Without warning, the flameless fireworks erupted into a shower of concentrated sparkles and miniature explosions, completely and utterly shattering the moment. Both ponies yelped and separated from each other, taking cover from the bright explosions.

It was then that the Doctor thanked his past self for putting safety first and designing his fireworks so that they produced contained, largely harmless explosions. Peeking from under the cover of his hooves, the Timelord-turned-pony took in the enhanced view. Although the flameless fireworks were no longer on the tree, their bursts of color reflected off the lights and few remaining ornaments beautifully.

“Derpy, look!” he called, rising up and hurrying over to her. “Look, they’re even more beautiful now!”

The gray pegasus was cowering under her hooves, her wings pressed flat against her back like a shield. She shyly peeked up at the Doctor through a crack between her trembling hooves.

“It’s safe, I promise!” the Doctor reassured her. “I made them to be harmless, they won’t hurt you!”

He extended a hoof towards her and she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet. Her uneven eyes peered open and saw the sparkling display surrounding the Hearth’s Warming tree. Rising up to her full height, she watched the collection of explosions with awe. She caught the Doctor’s blue eyes staring at her and faltered, lowering her head in shame.

“I-I’m so sorry, I…” she sputtered, unable to look directly at him. “I must’ve activated the fireworks, I didn’t mean to…”

Eyebrows raising in surprise, the Doctor’s mouth fell open. “Wait…if the flameless fireworks are activated by love, and you’re saying…” He gasped in sheer excitement. “You love me? _You love me!_ ”

Derpy managed to look back up at him, ears flattened to the top of her head. “I’m so sorry, Doc, I didn’t think it would make the fireworks go off, but I couldn’t help it!”

“This is _brilliant_!” the Doctor cried, reaching out and wrapping up Derpy in a massive hug. The nervous pegasus looked up at him in confusion, still certain that she’d done something wrong.

“I-I thought that _I_ was the one who tripped the fireworks,” the Doctor panted out, his exuberance tiring him out. “You love me!” he repeated giddily into Derpy’s yellow mane.

Cheeks turning pink, a hesitant smile crept onto Derpy’s face. “So…you also…”

“Of _course_ I love you back!” the Doctor cried, pulling away to look Derpy directly in the face. “In all this time, I never would have thought…” He let out a trill of bright laughter.

That brought a full-blown smile to Derpy’s face. The Doctor took his chance to plant a long, sudden smooch on that smile and return to happily embracing her. As the fireworks boomed and crackled above them, they just held on to each other, having received the greatest Hearth’s Warming gift possible.

_Thus ends the sixth day of Christmas._


End file.
